If your Web browsing is spoiled by obnoxious pop-up ads, try a free Web browser that takes control away from annoying marketers and gives it back to you.

This is the Opera browser, made for Windows, Linux and Macintosh. An interesting novelty two years ago, it has matured into a first-class choice. It is far more customer-oriented than Internet Explorer, and is free at www.opera.com (or $40 for a version sans ads).

Opera has developed a small but growing following, and is now available for cell phone-based Web browsing. It's made by Oslo, Norway-based Opera Software.

Opera's pop-up blocking feature is one of its best attributes, which Internet Explorer does not yet provide. Opera also offers selective blocking of plug-ins, Java and Javascript, as well the other standard browser features. It's less vulnerable to hackers than Internet Explorer.

Opera lets you magnify font sizes. This is a great feature for the visually impaired. And it has many other advanced features of use to Web experts.

Opera is a champion chameleon. It can identify itself either as Opera or a different browser, such as Internet Explorer. That is important if you get one of those narrow-minded Web sites that won't accept Opera, such as the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (www.sdcommute.com).

While a certain huge software company prates about innovation, Opera Software delivers.

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Besides irksome pop-ups, nosy registration forms are another bane of the Web. They are getting more common as Web sites try to "monetize" their readers.

One protection is to get a throwaway e-mail address, one you don't mind spammers having. Or just lie. Let the Washington Post wonder why its site gets so many visits from Albanian females born in 1905. Some sites let you skip registration entirely, if you claim to be in another country.

As Southwest Riverside County blogger Kynn Bartlett (www.kynn.com) discovered, the registration process on some technologically backward sites is easily circumvented. The Web sites of Belo's newspapers use Javascript to enforce registration. Turn off Javascript, and you can read without hindrance.

Full disclosure: The North County Times and Californian Web sites don't rely on registration at all.

Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.